Michael: Over and Back

The Boquete mist
Covered us in a welcomed
Powder of water.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

On Monday, Kimme and I went to the highest peak in Panama, Volcan Baru, starting from the Boquete side. Kimme went out and back on the jeep trail then down a paved road for 4 miles back to our B & B for an 8 hour, 20 mile trek. I went up the same way to the peak but continued down the Western Trail to the trailhead near Volcan then turned around and came back for a total of 11 hour 35 minute jog/hike and 25 miles total.

To put the difficulty of those 25 miles into perspective, last year I did a 46 mile Rim to Rim to Rim Grand Canyon adventure in 10 ½ hours. And really those two journeys juxtapose nicely; the canyon being the bowl and the volcano being the very steeply shaped ice cream protruding above the rim. Who could resist?

Like the canyon run, I wasn’t going in blind. Just like I did Rim to Rim before doing the double crossing, about a month ago Kimme and I had gone over the volcano. On that trip we started up the Western Trail and jogged down the jeep trail. That took us 7 hours and 15 minutes; 5 hours up and 2:15 down. From that trip I figured I could do the double crossing of the volcano between 11 and 12 hours.

The trip breaks down into 4 segments; a 13k uphill run on the jeep trail. A 7k hike/run down the single track Western Trail, a turn around slow hike/run back up the Western Trail, then a 13k mostly jog down the jeep trail back into Boquete. From my previous experience of these trails I gave myself 3 hours for the run up, 3 hours for the hike down, 4 hours for the hike back up, then 2 hours for the jog back to the ranger station near Boquete.

I came pretty close to my estimates doing the first segment in 2:50, the second in 2:50, the third in 3:40, and the fourth in 2:15.

While both sides of the volcano entail climbs that start at 5,000 ft and end at the cross at the top at a little over 11,000 ft., they are completely different types of trails over very different terrain that really throws an enjoyable contrast into the journey.

For one, the jeep trail on the Boquete side covers that 6,000 ft of elevation gain in 13k, while the Western Trail covers that same gain in only 7k, so while still steep, the grade on the jeep trail is far more forgiving.

The major difficulty with running the jeep trail is that about half of those 13k sections are strewn with about 50 to 80 meter patches of large rocks to prevent erosion. Still runnable on the uphill, but on my tired legs on the return down, I chose to walk those sections instead of risking a fall, which was both frustrating and time consuming.

The trail also peters out very near the cross at the pinnacle and the last couple of hundred of meters is more of a slow scramble then a clear path to the peak, which felt both dangerous and again very time consuming. I skipped those last few meters on the way back turning for the jeep trail at the nearby Panamanian flag.

The Western Trail by contrast, starting from the peak, descends steeply on exposed sand and rock for about a 1 ½  kilometers, which is kind of fun because you can step/slide down. On the way back though that same sandbox feels like it transforms into a quagmire of quicksand.

There are bits and pieces of runnable sections on the Western Trail, particularly the last couple of kilometers. And, like at the top, the last kilometer is out in the open, but is forgivingly a flat grassy jeep trail. For the most part though the single track Western Trail is under the canopy and is a gorgeous steep rooty windy E ticket ride (I’m sure Kimme will want me to edit out this reference to old Disneyland tickets that broke down the park’s rides into different levels of excitement, with the E ticket rides being the most adventurous. But I’m going to stick with it.). On this trail I run, hike, crawl, swing, pull, twist, hurdle, grunt, pray…whatever I need to do to keep moving forward.

The weather was just about perfect, even a little on the warm side during the last few kilometers on the Western Trail near the trailhead, but with no rain during the just about guaranteed rain everyday rainy season.

That provides a descent sketch of the terrain and physical challenges of the over and back Volcano adventure. Tomorrow I’ll talk about the mental and nutritional aspects of this journey